Some Confessors seem to think The Hardline is sinking in the ratings, running behind the competition, or otherwise not doing well.
This is not correct.
I recently heard from a Dallas media source who I believe to be reliable. S/he was concerned about passing along this information as even the immortal Barry Horn seems to be forbidden from publicizing it, so I'm going to withhold some details to avoid any problems with the ratings people.
However, at extreme personal risk, I can report generally on the numbers representing an average of the last four monthly books (as of the time I received this information, which was a few weeks back now):
-- All Ticket shows are #1 in their time slots in the target demographic (men 25-54).
-- The Musers are the top-rated Ticket show, ratings in the low double-digits.
-- The Hardline is a very close second to the Musers, only a point behind The Musers and also in the low double-digits.
-- Hardline ratings have risen steadily over the past "many" months (source was not more specific).
-- BaD and Invasion ratings are about equal, and only a point behind the Hardline.
So: Ticket continues to dominate. Hardline doing extremely well and improving. Musers still tops. Middays also extremely strong, only two points behind the galaxy-class Muser ratings.
None of this means you have to like The Hardline or any of the other shows. But running down its ratings just because you want to see (for example) Corby get some kind of comeuppance is wishful thinking.
If one believes these numbers, and I do, one can only conclude that The Ticket continues huge throughout the weekday daylight broadcast hours. This suggests that the CTO has zero incentive to impose the slightest tinkering on any of those shows.
* * *
I will say this: While I do defend Corby and The Hardline in these pages, I am in agreement with many Confessors on much of the criticism leveled at The Hardline. Weak show preparation, dumb political talk, shaky sports talk, Mike's very inconsistent interest in the show (it seems to be on the rise lately), Corby's mic hogging and noisy berating of Mike for having variant opinions -- it's all true. It's obvious. And yet, I don't tune away very often and when I do, it isn't for long. And the numbers are saying that, if anything, The Hardline is getting more popular.
So while on balance I give The Hardline an MTC thumb's-up -- when it's clicking, it's still very entertaining despite everything and Mike remains the most charismatic broadcaster on the air -- I have to ask myself if better competition wouldn't see a meaningful migration away from 1310/96.7 after 3 pm.
I just don't know, so hard to say based on the current choices. ESPN's substitution of Steve Dennis for Matt Mosley has been a step backwards. Ben & Skin -- man, every time I tune in there it seems like they're doing some dumb game show thing or homering for the Cowboys or Rangers or otherwise failing to attract my interest for more than a few minutes. The whole show just seems canned, the enthusiasm manufactured. Maybe I need to do a power-listen on B&S to see if there's more to 'em, because as much as I feel at home with The Hardline, I'd give a PM drive show staffed by human beings who seemed comfortable talking to one another -- which is how I would characterize The Hardline even when it's weak -- a real shot.
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| Inaccurate reportage of Hardline ratings makes me melancholy in kind of a tragic, Jane Austen sort of way. |
Anecdotally these rating follow this P1's listenership accurately. Invasion/BaD would increase dramatically in my book if a certain ticker person would choose a different line of work.
ReplyDeleterating=ratings
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts, P-Man, and I'm in agreement with it all. For as much as THL frustrates me at times, there's not much else out there worth listening to (at least while I still drive an old enough car that I don't have many options beyond terrestrial radio or an old CD).
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, am I the only one who can't stand Fight Night? P-Man I think you expressed a similar opinion in the past (though forgive me if I've attributed that to you erroneously). I've heard more than one of the Tier 1 say this is the "best event" they do all year, and I can't really figure out why. I've had very tepid interest when a Ticket personality was involved (see: Jake vs. Mike in Duncanville, TC some years back) but, other than that, I don't get it. Is it something you have to see in person to really enjoy?
I've never been even minimally interested in Fight Night, but if the ticket could talk Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels into facing off in the ring, I'd be very interested.
ReplyDeleteI have not heard any interviews with the fighters like I have previous years. Did they have interviews and I was just not around the channel or did not have them at all?
ReplyDeleteI plan on going tomorrow night. Probably get to Deep Ellum and have lunch at Adairs. That place has been on my bucket list for a while.
The rating make you wonder if the shows stood on their own without the lead in of another show how would they fair ? When the late night TV wars were going on back in the day they always said how important the lead in shows were to the late night numbers.
ReplyDeleteI started listening to country music because my alarm clock was set on the Rangers game from the night before as a kid. If it had been a pop station would I have like pop music more ?
I wonder what kind of ratings BaD would get if they were on from 3-7, when everyone is in their car listening. Just because THL gets decent ratings doesn't mean it's a good show. I think the Ticket could play 3 hours of buffalo's having a farting contest and still get ratings; the station enjoys a very strong listener allegiance. I don't listen to Hardline anymore, and for very good reason. Last Friday, during The Top Ten, they played the E-brake segment, and Corby was featured. Sure enough, there's is Corby, screaming his head off about how they should be taking all these monuments down because they're offensive. What the idiot doesn't seem to understand, is...where does this "PC run amok" stop?! It's going to keep getting more and more ridiculous. Now you got em trying to change the mascot horses name because of the same name as Robert E Lee's horse, not to mention the cat losing the gig because his name was Robert Lee! You can't keep kowtowing to all this crap!! What's next...you want to tear down the antebellum mansions?! And why not tear down the mansions? There's no bigger representation of "black repression" than that. Not to mention the white people still financially benefiting from them...unlike the monuments! We gonna start sand-blasting Mt Rushmore? Something is always going to offend somebody! Corby, you offend me! Maybe we just need to get rid of you! Corby needs to stick with what he does best...boring segments!
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase a popular mid-day wacky radio liner: "I NEVER listen to the Ticket after 3:50pm"
Delete('ti's true)
Since you have some inside baseball on ratings numbers, Pcis, post them. Because the numbers I see on credible sites say otherwise re THL. Yes, they are number one, but the lead differential between their show and their competitors and their coVarsity brethren and their differential between their shows and their competitors is not next to Muser hegemony. Methinks your source is the same source that gives you inside the Mothership info. In other words, a Ticket employee of some degree. Which means, bias. Show the goods or shut up with the "certain Confessors are wrong" crap.
ReplyDelete305: Identify those "credible sites."
ReplyDeleteTexas Hammer/East Texas: You're correct.
ReplyDeleteI have campaigned against Fight Night since 2009, and that campaign has been a dismal failure. I've done several columns on it. Here's one of the more detailed ones:
http://myticketconfession.blogspot.com/2010/08/weenie-alert.html
I've also come to the same conclusion as T-Ham, which is that it must be more fun to be there than it is to listen to (except for pre-fight round tables). The broadcast of the fight is borderline incompetent. Whoever is doing the blow-by-blow (with the exception of Norm, who seems to know what he's doing) usually starts out by screaming, and whenever anyone lands a punch, everyone with a mic goes "OHHHHH" at the same time and the report of what actually happened is drowned out. It's just a tough listen.
E-Tex: In years past I have also written about the lack of publicity for the event. This started a couple of years go. The recruiting of fighters and pre-fight interviews used to burn many, many segments on all the shows, with each show having its own fighters. Now, almost none of that (although fighters are kinda still associated with individual shows, but it's half-hearted). (I think I heard the tail end of a fighter interview this AM on The Musers.) I can only conclude that the CTO has concluded that (1) the live event is packed and doesn't need publicity, (2) they're getting many more fighter volunteers than previously, (3) evening ratings don't matter so who cares if anyone tunes in.
If you don't want to sample the archives: My objection to Fight Night, in addition to it being a tough listen, is that the potential for amateurs to get hurt, and potentially catastrophically hurt, even with headgear and big fluffy gloves, is not negligible. One death, paralysis, or serious injury and the fun could end at The Ticket for a long time. Public fury; sponsor desertion; jumbo lawsuits.
But: The P1, they attend, so Fight Night thrives. I've given up.
Did you hear Mike when he was on with Cash Sirois? So much better, more engaged, more interesting than when he does the Hardline.
ReplyDeletehttp://menu.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rolmenu.exe/menu
ReplyDeleteThere you go, Pjit.
My only real problem with fight night as a radio event is the over-screaming and over-laughing.
ReplyDelete305/249: Thanks for the link. If my source has distorted something, I do want to know about it and I'm happy to consider your information. I went to the link and found no articles regarding Dallas ratings or The Ticket or The Hardline.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I should add is that I THINK -- pretty sure -- my information includes the stream, which (again, I only know what I'm told) is accounted for in the numbers, and it should be.
701: Right. Which is about 80% of the broadcast.
ReplyDeleteI listened to maybe 5 or 6 fights and other than the guy getting his shoulder dislocated, it was a pretty dismal affair. Poor fighters, poor fights, ginned up show-v.-show rivalry falling flat. Corby's and Gordon's shrieking got old fast. As usual, Craig had some good lines. I thought Bob seemed at all times like he would rather have been somewhere else.
No point to having the Generic Youth Minister show up. His bit lasted exactly 11 seconds.
And . . . it sounded like The Bomb Factory maybe didn't exactly . . . fill up? I've never been there, maybe it's huge.
Maybe the P1 was worried about getting gas.
You can check Junior's twitter feed for a decent pic of the scene
ReplyDeleteDid Edie Brickell give up and start calling her band THE New Bohemians?
ReplyDelete